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February 16 2010

Wythall Radio Club - Regional Winner Club of the Year

We are pleased to announce that Wythall Radio Club has been voted regional winner of the 2009 Club of the Year.

Their entry, which is reproduced below, now goes forward to the RSGB National Club of the Year award.

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Wythall Radio Club

I don’t know what makes a good radio club but if there is a gold standard somewhere then I reckon Wythall Radio Club must come close to achieving it. Based in the village of Wythall just outside the great city of Birmingham, the club has, for the past 28 years offered a cheerful and hearty welcome to anybody interested in amateur radio. We meet every Tuesday in an old manor house, that is the home of the Wythall Community Association. The club founders were offered the use of the house cellar, provided they dug out the many tons of earth and coal that had filled. This now provides us with a classroom for lectures, meetings, a radio shack and a storeroom. The club currently has a membership of 65 and provides a varied programme of work each year. Such as putting on the Wythall Radio Rally every March (next year, 2010 will be our 25th) so that we can fund the club costs and equipment purchases. The radio shack is fully equipped with MF/HF/VHF/UHF/SHF radios, PC’s and linears. Outside we have a 60ft free standing Versatower and we also equipment we can use on portable contests and special events. The club has an active contest group which regularly participates in UKAC events and VHF NFD. A trailer mounted 100ft Versatower and operating caravan are also part of the clubs inventory.
Since winning an Awards for All lottery grant in 2007, we have set up and run continuous training programmes for Foundation, Intermediate and Advanced candidates. The grant helped us purchase presentational and test equipment and computers to enable us to provide a high standard of training. We aim to run at least 4 Foundation, 2 Intermediate and 1 Advanced courses each year. The club got Wythall House registered as an authorised examinations centre. A highlight for us this year was when we helped an 86 year old pass his intermediate and a 10 year old pass his Foundation.
We regularly have lectures, sometimes from outside such as Roger G4ROJ who gave an excellent demonstration and talk on his kite antennas, mostly from other club members. This year we started a monthly homebrew session, this has proved popular with all club members. The club has an active and well maintained website. We also have a club e mail reflector so that members can keep in touch with each other. Every two months we publish an 8 page electronic newsletter highlighting homebrew projects, club and contest news and other items written by members.
At the request of the Rotarians of Amateur Radio we provided our trailer mast, rotator and installation crew for the International Rotarians Annual Conference held this year at the NEC in Birmingham.
Social activities remain a big feature of the club. We have a Xmas social for members and friends, plus an annual Xmas Fox Hunt on 2m. The special event stations we put on each year, more recently associated with local steam rallies, are popular and the VHF NFD Saturday evening is a good excuse for a club BBQ. Occasional visits out are also on the calendar with a tour round Bletchley Park a highlight this year.
The ethos of the club is to have fun in all that we do and of course it helps to have a well stocked bar in the Community Association above our shack. However we never forget amateur radio is a hobby to be enjoyed and friendships made at Wythall Radio Club tend to last a long time.
Chris Pettitt G0EYO
Secretary, Wythall Radio Club
07710 412 819 g0eyo@(nospam)wythallradioclub.co.uk